Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island Day Trip

Went to Whidbey Island this past weekend for a full day of caching. As you recall, I made this trip several years back in 2019 to get some very specific caches to complete challenges, and several Earthcaches, which you can read in a previous "BLOG"

We headed down on Friday afternoon and planned to cache all the way to Burlington. Our first stop was in Ferndale to avenge my DNF I got there when I was thru last month on the way to fly out to Vegas for a magic convention. It was a cool Multi cache called "Stamp Panorama". It was at a post office with artwork on the wall. You needed to search the art for clues to get the co-ords.

I could not find it last month as I believe it was missing. We found it this time and it was a brand new container with only about 4 names so far. Still a cool place to visit. We then headed down the road and grabbed several more caches on the way to our hotel.

We found a few Guardrail caches (Common in the States) but this was by far the best of them.

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

We cached until just after sunset, which is now about 9:30pm.

We then headed to the hotel to rest up for the next day as we knew it was gonna be a full day!!

 I found a total of 17 caches, with 3 of them being challenge caches and 2 multi's. The rest were traditional caches. 

Not bad for leaving Vancouver at 4:30ish

The next morning we arose early and got ready to head out.

The first cache we grabbed was in plain view on the side of a community hall. 

Almost like a bird house cache.

We then headed down the road and grabbed 1 part of an Adventure Lab. We had 7 AL's that we were also working on between caches, but wasn't sure if we would complete them and just get some of the stages. But we can always make that another trip to complete them. lol

Deception Pass

 Welcome to the Deception Pass Bridge! This iconic structure was built in just under one year, from August 1934 to July 31, 1935, and depending on the tide sits about 18 stories above the water. It is comprised of two sections--a 511-foot structure from Fidalgo to Pass Island and a 975-foot structure from Pass Island to Whidbey Island. It is now the crown jewel of the park and receives over two million visitors annually. 

The water thru here is very forceful

 Although Deception Pass may be famous for its natural beauty, it is also well known for its powerful and sometimes deadly currents. Capable of reaching speeds between 8-12 knots, the tidal current that runs through the pass forces nearly two million gallons of water flow through the pass per second. That’s more than 50 times the average flow of all the rivers emptying into Puget Sound.

Oak Harbour 

Murals and statues are everywhere.

The town is full of history and art. The next picture isn't art. lol

This was out on the dock. It is an area for dogs to go do their business. Be aware, the next pic is a spoiler as to where the cache was.

Very cool container, hiding the container.

These metal people were welcoming you to Whidbey Bluffs, which we stopped at to get 2 caches in the nearby cemetery. .

At the bottom of Whidbey Island, there is a webcam cache, so we made sure to grab it as we were trying to get as many cache icon's in a day as possible. After we got the webcam cache we headed back up the island grabbing more caches. 

Whidbey Spit

There is a cache on this sign, but we could not find it. We were running out of daylight so we gave in and headed down the road. As we still had lots of other caches to find. We will be back

We grabbed a few more on the way to Coupeville, including one that is a difficulty 4 and had 225 finds and 109 DNF's on it. Always nice to grab one that is tricky for so many others. Especially after our DNF at the Whidbey Spit sign.

Underneath all this greenery is a huge boulder known as the "Coupeville Erratic". This huge boulder is about 25-30 feet tall and 35-40 feet wide. A glacial erratic, as defined by Wikipedia, is a piece of rock that deviates from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests; the name "erratic" is based on the errant location of these boulders. These rocks were carried to their current locations by glacial ice, often over hundreds of kilometres. Erratics can range in size from pebbles to large boulders.

Day 2 had me finding 29 caches, 21 Adventure lab spots from 7 Different AL's, 1 DNF, 1 webcam cache, 3 Multi's, 1 puzzle, 1 Earthcache, 1 Letterbox, 1 Virtual, and 1 Wherigo.

A total of 566.7 KM in a day and a half and I got a total of 46 caches, with 9 different Icons in one day, we also started 7 different Adventure Labs but only completed 1. lol...we will be back

NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become bigger!!!

This past BC Day long weekend we went out to get Susan's 1500th cache. She wanted to do a cool cache, so I searched out a cool one for her. It was a cache I did back in 2018 called CacheDuino.

Usually you have to find the TB tag that is associated with the cache to go find the cache box at a secret location. Then you have to bring the locked box with you and find the spot where it will open for you.

We picked up the box, as you can see in the picture above,  and then we worked our way towards the secret spot after finding 4 other caches first, so this would be her 1500th find!!!

We decided to go get the 2 multi caches that where at the Golden Ears bridge and we had to walk across the bridge both ways. Probably not the best idea when it was so hot out. Plus we forgot to pack any water with us. Yikes!!

But we made it across and back again, traveling over 6km by foot, and we got both caches. 

Some very cool info on the bridge, but a long walk to get it. lol. Should have done it by bike.

The reward was finding two very cleverly hidden caches.

Can you see it??

How about now??

After our 6 km, 2 hour hike across the bridge and back in 35 degree heat, we decided to make our way towards the spot to open the cache box. We grabbed 2 quick caches to bring her total to 1499. Susan pressed the button, to get info from the box and we were on our way!!!

After pressing it several times and deciding which direction to head to, she got the "Puzzle Solved" message and the box unlocked!!

Here is the reward, you get to open the box and log the cache!! YAY 1500!!!

 Next week just days before Geowoodstock, I will be heading to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan for a couple of shows, and of course I will grab a few caches while there. But more about that next month, and the BIG event, that has been delayed since 2020 called GEOWOODSTOCK!!!! I am also hoping to get 12 different Icon's on that day. Wish me luck!!

 

Geowoodstock is Coming This Month!!

Where will you be on August 11th to the 13th??  All the cool cachers will be at Canada's First Geowoodstock!!! If you have not registered yet for this event....what are you waiting for??? Go to "Geowoodstock XVIII" to register NOW!!! Also log your will attend at "GC86VDF"

Well that's it for this month,

See you all at Geowoodstock XVIII

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Weekend geocaching road trips

Day Trip to Whidbey Island

So as you can see from my last "blog", I have been planning to head to the States to do a day of caching. I headed down on a Friday morning and thought I might stay over night and cache my way home on Saturday. I had a list of about 50 caches for the trip, but several of them were just to fill in empty spots if I had the time to grab them. My plan was to get some very specific caches for challenges, or with lots of fave points as well as several Earthcaches.

Whidbey Island Bluffs

I did about 400 km round trip by car, but, I also did a 6.5 km round trip hike, plus another 2 km hike in hard terrain area, and in total, I logged a total of 8 Earthcaches, 1 Multi-Cache, 18 Traditional's, 2 of which where needed for a challenge cache. A total of only 27 caches, but with a total of 920 Favorite points on them. I was also able to sign a Challenge cache but need 2 more caches to be able to log it, and I was also able to log a Challenge cache I got while I was down in Las Vegas in February because the 8 Earthcaches I found have now put me over 100 Earthcache finds.

Very cool Erratic Art

Fort Casey State Park

That is an Erratic under those bushes

The Boulder under those bushes is about 30 feet tall by about 40 feet wide.

An Erratic is a rock or boulder that differs from the surrounding rock and is believed to have been brought from a distance by glacial action.

I also found a cache that was hidden in March 2001, which helps fill in a blank on my Jasmer chart.

Jasmer Challenge: One of the oldest and most popular geocaching challenges is the Jasmer Challenge. To complete the challenge, you must fill your Jasmer grid by finding caches placed in every month since geocaching began in May 2000. Popular in the United States, the Jasmer requires geocachers find one cache hidden each month since geocaching began in May 2000. To give you a sense of the breadth of this challenge, there are less than 120 caches hidden in 2000 that are still active. I still have 9 in 2000 and 2001 that I need to find....Geocaching road trip, anyone?

I did this multi cache, which was near an airbase and while I was there collecting info for the second stage, several fighter jets were doing maneuvers in the sky above me. Very Cool!!!

At the beginning of April, Oliver and I did a cache in a Library (which you can see in this "Video")
It was for the April Geochallenge where you needed to find a cache in a front yard or at a business or inside a Library. During this day trip, I actually found 4 caches that would also qualify for that challenge. One was a front yard Free Library, one was at a roadside Market shop, one was at a roadside Ice cream shop, and the other one was inside a greenhouse at a plant and flower shop.

Free Library Cache

"Flower Power" cache in a Greenhouse

So after my day trip, I was looking at my stats for geocaching (Yes, I'm a bit of a nerd) on "My Geocaching Profile"
I noticed that during this trip, I did the "Most Well Rounded D/T Day" which means I found 16 different combinations of Difficulty and Terrain caches. Way cool as I wasn't even planning that.

Now I am looking forward to the next time I can do a day or weekend trip just for caching. Road Trip anyone??


Other Road Trips
Headed out to Tsawwassen for a show but got into town early, so I went and grabbed a puzzle and traditional cache on the way into town.

When I got there I went for a nice walk out on the flats of Boundary Bay, and grabbed a Multi cache and an earthcache called "Boundary Bay Earthcache"
I then headed into town and grabbed several other caches. It was such a beautiful day and the sun was shining, so I just had to get out there.




Upcoming trips
I have already started looking at caches I would like to get when I head to Edmonton, Alberta in July, for my Nephew's wedding, then in August not only will I be heading to Las Vegas as always for a 4 day magic convention, where I will be there for 10 days, but I will also be taking Oliver to California for a trip to LEGOLAND!! After Vegas and LEGOLAND, I have a show in Saskatchewan that I will be flying to but will be sure to grab some caches, near the hotel and venue. Also the Gold country events will be in September and I am looking forward to heading to the Merritt, Lytton, and Ashcroft areas for it.

Geochallenge

So the Geochallenge from the "Geocaching Vlogger" for May is to find a cache involving a Mural or a cache by a mural. I have found several mural caches in the past. Usually you have to get some info from them such as counting objects or using word within them and then change that info into letters and each letter is represented by a number which helps form the cache co-ordinates.

I found this one which was on the side of a legion about the history of Veterans Day called "Lest We Forget: Veteran's Memorial Mural" for the challenge!!


NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become bigger!!!

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

YouTube channel

So recently Oliver and I have been doing videos while caching and I have loaded a few up onto our NEW YouTube channel so far. He wanted to start a YouTube channel of his own for caching videos, so I have set one up for us. If you want to check out our progress so far and give us some feedback that would greatly be appreciated. Here are links to 2 of the videos:

"Library Cache Geochallenge"(I wrote about this challenge in last months blog)

"Travel Bug caching"

Please check these out and our new YouTube channel, and comment on the videos, and subscribe to our channel. As I get better with editing, they will look a little nicer. lol

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65